Upgrade vs Reinstall

[Gordon Keehn]

Nix, Robert P. wrote:

>-----Original Message-----
>From: fedora-list-bounces at redhat.com [mailto:fedora-list-bounces at redhat.com] On Behalf Of Gordon Keehn
>Sent: Tuesday, April 12, 2005 11:56 AM
>To: For users of Fedora Core releases
>Subject: Re: Upgrade vs Reinstall
>
>    I've upgraded from RH9->FC1->FC2->FC3 from the CDs.  The only 
>problem I've had each time is getting APT / SYNAPTIC upgraded to the new 
>repositories.  When I initially bring up synaptic, it complains of 
>multiple duplicate packages, and it takes a few cycles to get everything 
>cleaned up.  Also, I find that while I can download the necessary RPMs 
>to update apt itself to the new release, they can't be installed from 
>apt (bootstrap problems?) so I then have to go into the apt cache folder 
>and install the apt RPMs manually.  I've never tried upgrading using 
>apt-get, but maybe I'll try that out when FC4 is released.  Problem is 
>while that should upgrade existing packages I'm not sure what it'll do 
>with any new packages that are in the new release.  At least if I have 
>the CDs I have a base-level that I can work from.
>    Cheers,
>Gordon Keehn
>
>------
>
>If I'm not mistaken, the one major flaw in upgrading is that, while everything you have installed is upgraded to the levels in the new distribution, you miss out on anything / everything that is new to the distribution. So a neat new package that didn't exist in FC2 or before, that is now included in FC3 by default, won't show up on your system during the upgrade. 
>
>I had upgraded beginning with RH 7.3, through 8 and 9, then to FC1. Then I started noticing people talking about "program such and such", and I didn't have it. It would seem that, other than hand installing a bunch of stuff after upgrading, there's no simple way to pick up anything "new" from distribution to distribution.
>
>(Please, someone; Prove me wrong...)
>  
>
    As I recall, when I upgraded from CD I still had the option of 
selecting packages, so I was able to pull in all the great new stuff.  
Of course I never tried deselecting packages (kernel?) that had been 
autoseleceted "just to see what would happen".
    Cheers,
Gordon Keehn